The Life Of Charles Stewart Parnell - Ii

4 CHARLES STKWAUT PAHNRLL [1883
policy would be maintained, that no further concessions would be made to lawless agitators, and that the secret societies would continue to receive the energetic vigilance of the Government, gave him his chance.
On February 212 lie came down to the House full of fight and bent on vengeance. He had been thrown over by Mr. Gladstone at the instigation of one of his colleagues in the Cabinet and under the skilful manipulation of Parnell, who had used the hostility of that colleague to accomplish his overthrow. He would now expose his enemies. I Le would show that the man with whom Mr. Gladstone had treated, with whom Mr. Chamberlain had intrigued, was the enemy of Mngland, and the head of a lawless and rebellious agitation aimed at the very heart of the Empire. He had a popular theme, and he did it justice. His indictment of Parnell was trenchant and eloquent, pitched in a key which pleased old Whigs and delighted young Tories. The, Opposition roared themselves hoarse with joy at every sentence, not merely because the oration was calculated to damage Parnell, but much more because it was calculated to bring discredit on the Government.
The whole Liberal parly would have cheered vociferously too, but they felt that the ex-Chief Secretary was girding at their own loader an well as at the Irish ' rebel' whom they abhorred, and this consideration kept them in restraint. In the speech itself there was nothing new. It was, in fact, based on a pamphlet published Borne months before by Mr. Arnold Forstor entitled ' The Truth about the Land League * —a pamphlet made up of extracts from the inflammatory and seditions speeches and newspaper articles of the Leaguers. Mr. Forster spoke from this brief,